Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-03-25
SENATORS IN CUBA.
HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED By THE CAP
TAIN GENERAL.
Strange Sights and Tropical ScensS-Ths Way V
Get to Cuba-Enterng The HarbOr-Senator
Palmer and the Royal Baby-A
Reception in Cuba
Special Correspondence oCRe Register

HAVANA, CUBA, March 2l.7SlA nouIS
ride from Key West lies a country almost
as different from the United States as old
Egypt. Cuban scenes and Cuban archl-
lecture remind one somewhat of the scenes
OF the Nile, and the sky and the trees, the
houses of the people are those of a differ
ent world than the American. Above and
below us there is blaze of bright colors,
and the palm trees and the banana har-
monize with the tropical sun and the low
blue sky. 1t is perpetual summer here,
and Cuba is said to be the garden OF the
world. We are delighted with the city OF
Havana, with its many one and two story
buildings painted in all the cOlors of the
rainbow, and We have fallen in love with
the narrow streets into which the stores OF
the merchants open like the booths OF a
business street at Alexandria, or, as
traveller tells ME, like the shops of Canton,
China.
CUBA HAS COME MUCH CLOSER
to us within the last few years. The long
sea voyage from New York to Havana has
given place to the fast mail route along the
Atlantic coast and the sea ride of day
and night from Florida. 1t is by this
route that the Senatorial party has come,
and it is the easiest Ofjumps into foreign
world. The railroad is rs smooth "a any
in the United States, the steamers of the
Plant line are fitted out like yachts as to
comforts, and they make as fast time COM
paratively as does the railroad. Wewere un-
der the charge of Mr.. A. j. Galloway, the
travelling agent of the road, upon the At
lantic Coast line, and the Senators found
him as good Us professional courier. At
jacksonville, Mr.. Fuste, n bright eyed,
black mustached young Cuban, who is in
the employ of the Plant steamship line,
Joined the party as its interpreter for Cuba
and thus we started for Havana with every
preparation made At Key West, which
we reached in the evening the bearded
members of the party had chance for
shave We found the BARRIERS all Gu
ban, and the one ShO shaved Senator
Palmer. upon his trying to talk TO him,
said: ME no talk Inglese; me talk Span
ishn My barber pulled cigarette while
he shaved me- and he tlOuriShed long
little finger nail in front of my eyes in
such II way that it came between me and
the light, looking like an opalescent win
dow. Mr.. FuStc says that there are a
majority of Cubans on the island of Key
West, and that of the l., 900, NJ which he
estimates the population, 1000 are from
Cuba The Key West cigars are made by
them.
We woke
IN SIGHT OF HAVANA
and the sun rose before our eyes rs the
MasCOtte entcrered the harbOr. All were
on deck rs we steamed by Moro Castle, the
great fort which with hOary battlcments
irOwns upon the ships aS they enter he
tween it and the city, and Il steam launch
sent out in honor of "Nice President Sher-
man and distinguished Senators Of the
United States" as the Spanish papers re-
ported it, took us off to the city. We
found in the boat Gen. BriCe, one of the
Congressmen-eleCt from New York, and
Mr.. Allen Thorndike Rice, the editor OF
The North Amcricdn Rcrier, and these
gentlemen became part of our
party which, upon counting, now
numbers eighteen. We were landed
in u court where low, red tiled, square
built Cuban buildings surrounded us, and
where at one end shoemaker was work
ing at his trade in the open air. Dirty
children, coffee cOlOred and black, half
naked, sprawled here and there, and re-
echoed the sentiments of one of the ladies
when | said: This reminds one of the
scenes along the Chiaia at Naples" And,
indeed, one is reminded of Italy here at
every step. The climate is much the same
as that of Naples, the habits of the people
are of the same open air order, and the
streets are TedOlcnt with smells which
cannot be surpassed by those of that most
beautiful and dirticSt of the cities of Italy.
We rode in VictOrias through narrow
streets TO the PiStage hotel, and ate, after
the custom of the country, our first break
| fast of oranges, coffee and rolls in the lit
tie room which serves as barroOm and cof-
| fee room in the Cuban hotels. There are
no Hoffman House bars in Cuba, and the
gildcd mirrors, the statuary and the grand
paintings OF the modern American saloon
are not to he found here. The coffee rooms,
where most drinks are taken, are of the
same style as the French cafe, and the
customer generally sits down and drinks
at his leisure.
I1xns,~u